


Bitter Ashes

by MikaMckeena



Category: Bleach
Genre: Drama & Romance, Emotional Constipation, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotionally Repressed, F/M, Feelings, Forbidden, Friendship, Gen, Hope, Human, Hurt/Comfort, Mystery, Psychological Drama, Rebirth, Recasting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2018-08-07 06:04:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7703386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MikaMckeena/pseuds/MikaMckeena
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two years have passed since the Winter War ended and left its mark on all who fought in it. Scaring one young heart in the truth of what War is and leaving a longing for someone turned to ash. Yet hes about to come back and no one can guess how or why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Bitter Ash  
Prologue-Waking to Rain  
Setting: Two years set after the Winter War, Spring  
Rating: Pg-13 to maybe M depending on what Happens  
Warning: Some bit of OCC on our cannons  
Summary. Two years have gone by sense they won the war, and each move on with their lives while one woman finds her heart missing something and one thought lost wakes up to be alive.

Note: This chapter was Beta Read and Stamped by: TWI-hard kristine101, who rocks to no end! Thanks girly!

I close my eyes and I keep seeing things  
Rainbow waterfalls  
Sunny liquid dreams  
Confusion creeps inside me raining doubt  
Call me call me-The Seatbelts

His body felt heavy. Had his body ever felt heavy like this? Confusion slowly seeped into his mind and his skin for the moment. Skin? Questions filled in his mind in trying to recall last moments that seemed moments ago to his soul, finding his hands lightly reaching out to pick up a supple feeling in a tingle to the tips of his fingers, letting the texture recall in his mind. It was chilled to his finger tips but it held a type of rough texture in each blade as his senses came, touching his skin a moment as he some how recalled it in his mind in some place long ago. Grass. A type of plant many humans used for their yards… but there were no green things in the Hollow world.

Human?

The word felt ill fitting in his mind as he let his fingertips drift over the edges of this grass. In feeling the coolness to his skin for the moment, was it wet? What might cause it to be wet? As he felt this, he also felt the same wetness hitting his skin, chilling it on contact. What was the word to describe flowing water from the sky? Rain. Feeling it kiss his skin, and a chill as it slide down to hit the earth once more. It evoked something of a hidden memory in his mind he could not recall, but he soon did. Such a feeling on his skin had come from here that first day on meeting.

Did he dare to recall it?

Yet his mind journeyed down the path in seeing her in the moment, of feeling this rain on his hands like that day. Hair cast in a halo of gold, skin pale, like his own if she happened to maybe be standing in the moonlight, and those eyes in such pure heartbreak, with what humans called tears, in her eyes, and tracing down the hollow of her cheeks. Feeling them –for a moment –to land warmly on his hand as he reached out to catch this falling liquid. That first meeting. It had been the first pull he had felt in his once empty heart. In trying to recall the woman's name now in his mind…

Orihime….Inoue…..

It lingered on his lips in a bitter taste as the rain kissed his lips in a simple reminder he was still in this world. Tongue licking out to taste this mortal rain of the human world, to find it salty, like the tears of that girl. He could recall only fractions in his mind. Was he alive?

It made no sense to his mind in the moment of what being alive meant right now! He had turned to ash had he not? Recalling the very particles of him disappearing with each breathe his chest took, as the bounds of them broke down due to the attack and will of that lone man. Yet, he also could recall her eyes looking at him. So pure and untouched by his darken soul, as she said those words to him in a whisper.

"I'm not afraid of you."

Such a simple five words alone had caged his soul, as he simply reached out his hand in those last recalled moments of his life, seeking something beyond his own understanding. The heart? She had also reached out to him, maybe to try and save him from his bitter end, but, he had in that moment let go to fade away into the ash he was and was meant to be. He was far to tainted to truly even come close to the pure heart she had shown him in that moment.

Cracking open a single eye, he blinked as the fading twilight hit his green eyes, it truly was his first time at actually seeing the world. How had he come to be here? Several questions seeped into his mind as something new sounded in his ears.

A beat and thump?

Some kind of rhythmic thump in his chest, beating under the skin and bone that caged it!  
How could this be? His mind racing in the labialization, he knew what it was.

The heart…

Yet, to have a heart meant he had to be living and human. Had he come back life as the beating hit his chest, and breathing in the air as it floated in his lungs a moment in each breathe? Had he come back human? Why was he back? More and more questions seemed to lay on his mind.

Still, his last memories started with that woman, and maybe in finding her might also bring out these answers, of who he was, and how in the world he had come to wake on a rainy spring day.

Note: First time on this pairing but lets see how it plays out and I am also looking for a beta reader for this story, so if you can help me out a bit I would love you for a life time and make you a anime wallpaper of your choosing if its in my powers!


	2. Learning to Walk

Chapter Two: Meaning of a Name

Warning: Fighting, Humor, romance, OCC-ness, drama, odd moments, hurt/comfort, supernatural

Now Also Beta Read by :Twi-hard Kristine 101

Rating: PG-17

Weak…

He was pathetic. In not only his body, but also-it seemed-maybe in his mind. To overcome a simple thing of trying to push his front end off the wet grass-for something of chill was now setting, as the dusk was approaching quickly. Yet, he felt as if his body seemed to numb from hours of lying there. He slowly wiggled his fingers and toes just a bit to gain some idea of the control of this fleshy body.

He was weak…

His nerves screamed out as he picked up the smooth but coarse texture of the grass, and the coldness of the rain on his skin. All these sensations hit his mind like a bullet to the brain, as he pondered over where these sensations ended and fleshed began. The now human man-for the moment-drowned in his thoughts, he had to fight back and gain some control of his body. As an Espada, he had a sense of touch, but never to this extreme level, it had been more a shallow sensation if anything close to this energy level. This may be a new form of torture, taken part by any karma he had left from his former Espada days.

"Why do I live?" His thoughts becoming more coherent as his senses slowly came back to him, while he moved each of his limp legs to feel and understand the movement of the muscles underneath this pale skin; "I was killed byKurosaki Ichigo, yet, now I am alive and human?"

Was this a side effect of Aizen using the Hōgyoku much as he did on his Espada? That orb's very power was much unknown to the once Lord of Las Noches, and Ulquiorra himself had pointed that out one day, only to be slashed and nearly killed in questioning his Lord's Orb's very powers. Feeling the twist of grimace about to approach his features, he subconsciously held onto his normal façade of indifference.

He fully spread out his arms and pushed up from the ground so he could sit up at last, letting the human function called breathing fill his lungs a moment as he took in a deep breathe and smelled the living world truly, for what seemed like the first time. Picking up the senses of soggy grass, and something of stone, he cast a glance around him, his vision blurred by droplets of rain falling into his open eyes. He narrowed his eyes to get a better view of his surroundings.

A graveyard?

How had he come to be in a graveyard of all things? Twisting his neck, and letting this-still new to him-skin pull and crease while he turned his head to look around. This place seemed old: from the worn headstones where writing had faded away many years ago to where you couldn't see much with the little light that was not coveted by the dense surrounding trees, to the over-grown stone path, that had more green plants than grey stone visible. Ulquiorra, getting a better sense of his setting, tilted his head slightly in a puzzled way much like a cat would if thinking on an idea it came upon.

After looking around, he was a bit more perplexed but knew he had one more feat to accomplish: standing up.

Pushing more to center his weight, and drawing up his knees, he attempted to plant his bare feet on the grass, he managed a kneel almost, but his body was shaking from this strain and cried out for him to lay down. This would not do at all. He was truly pathetic if he could not even stand as a human. Not letting his legs go limp, he tried to keep intact whatever pride he had left as he again tried to accomplish this simple human act. He slowly firmly planted his weight on his left leg and foot, trying to stand steadily as he followed with his right.

Ulquiorra found himself standing, for the first time, as a human. He looked around once more, gaining a better view of his surroundings. Shivering in the rags of his left over uniform, he was glad that he was not naked-of all things-in a graveyard. Being nude would only add insults to his already wounded pride.

Standing was only part one, now came part two: walking.

Looking down at his pale, bare feet, he wondered about the softness under his feet, but knew in the end, he had no choice but to walk. Easier said then done, as with the first step he only ended up becoming, once more, acquainted with the soft soggy ground, as he crash landed into the earth, and once more and had to restart. his body seemed as weak as a infant, if even that! His mind knew what he had to do, and what he had done for years, but this human body did not, and acted like it was new almost.

"I will find out why this had happened to me, but my only lead is that woman..." Letting his thoughts fuel his need to walk, he got up –with some effort- once again.

Walking slowly, he stiffly he put one foot in front of the other. And only a few more shaky falls later he at last came upon a staircase of sorts, leading down and out of the graveyard. Being this high up also let Ulquiorra see that he had some luck, as the skyline of Karakura Town, basking in the dimming sunset, entered his view. Now to find that Woman…

Thankfully, his senses outside of the human norm lay in place, helping him in seeking out her aura in the ocean of millions in this world. Her presence –like a golden halo- lay a bit more than two miles away from his current position. Yet in feeling her presence he also sensed that some time had passed in her life, as she felt older.

How much time?

If she was alive –and in this world- then Aizen-sama had to have been defeated, or killed, by the shinigami. It left a sort of bitterness in his month, as Ulquiorra licked his lips and frowned a bit more in the very idea his lord having been defeated. But that could only explain why the woman was here and free. If anything she could tell him the outcome of the Winter War, and maybe the other Espada's fates.

Stairs proved to be a game of balance in this body, as he knew he could do them, but his body weight shifting in each step, leaving the man a bit uneasy and lacking in grace. Moving gradually, he had to rest a bit to take deep mouth fill of air a few times, to keep his lungs inflated and this body moving. Breathing was a fault. Eyes still locked to the body of his goal, Ulquiorra kept going until at last his screaming feet touched the level ground, out of the graveyard. He slowly sank down to sit on the last step, so he could rest for a moment.

Emerald green eyes narrowing on the city, still far away, and the woman's position locked into his mind. Two miles may as well be two hundred miles in this weak human form, now called his body! Something of a feeling akin to anger rippled in his soul in being made this way by some god as punishment.

Anger?

When had ever felt this fire now racing through his veins, making him form a fist of his left hand, this burning feeling that the coldness of the rain could not cool?

"When I fought that boy and he killed me..."

That had been truly the first time he had ever felt such a strong emotion. He truly had not lost, but he hadn't won, the outcome had been a stalemate if that, even.

Sitting here and looking back at the past would not help Ulquiorra, and he knew it all to well. He once more pushed his body up to stand, and started the track to the woman's position. Casting a long look at the graying skyline, and feeling the last rays of sunset, turning the sky into a dark blue-gray. He thought on how gray this world seemed without the sun to cast light and color on it, almost like Las Noches…

Would she help him or cast him away like trash? Did she have any reason to help the man who had once held her prisoner, and tried to kill her and her friends? A line of these questions seemed to hold refuge in his mind. The idea of seeking the aid of an enemy seemed to only make the former hollow sallow the bitter truth of his distain. Too much was going on for him to let his mind wander like this! He had to keep one simple goal in mind before he could seek out the truth.

He looked down for a moment at the rags of his white uniform, and some how found himself glad covered over certain areas. Walking up to the woman in his full on nudity, and around the town would make him stand out. Humans had a thing about keeping the body covered. Once in the city he might be able to seek out something more to cover his body and also to hide in case the shinigami still lingered in the city. Strangely what stood out the most was that he felt none of them, or the Death-Berry's, and his human friends' auras in this whole town, save the golden aura of the woman.

"Did the shinigami leave this place in thinking that she was safe due to Aizen being dead or captured," He thought, licking some of the rainwater off his dry lips. "and leave her with out a guard in case?"

Wrinkling his brows and tightening his jaw, deepening his already contestable frown, in only finding more questions, all of which links back to the woman. She's the only one who could even answer any of these questions for him. But for now the very idea of walking though the human town in his weakened state to get to her, was –just the thought- a cause for discomfort.

Holding the air in his chest, for the entire time as he mused over his thoughts caused it to ache, and his lungs to rejoice as his release it in a long sigh. Putting one foot in front of the other, Ulquiorra took the first steps away from the steps leading towards the graveyard to find the woman, and his answers.

At that same moment, said woman was looking back the clock of the bakery she had been working in since high school, smiling, almost sadly at the depressing sight of the rain on the spring day. Still there was a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that something was out of place in the world, something that seemed to pull at her heart.

"I wonder if something is going to happen today?"

Notes: Well the first real chapter is done if I must say and it took a bit to write if anything. I took my time on this story. Any who, thanks for reading and please, I would love some reviews and feed back!


	3. Moved On

Chapter Three: Moved on?

Warning: Fighting, Humor, romance, OCCness, drama, odd moments, hurt/comfort, supernatural, emo moments

Songs: Best of you-Foo Fighters

Rating: PG-17

Orihime smiled lightly as the seconds of the clock filled the empty shop for the moment as the scents of fresh bread lightly tickled her nose as she only inhaled profoundly of the homey scent. It was one of the things she had come to love working in this place the last three years. It smelled like a home might have with a mother in the kitchen. Not that she might know of that idea or sort of life that left the youthful woman feeling the tides of sadness for the moment.

An idea of home was still some what of a mystery to her she had yet to figure out al these years after her brother had passed away while she still just on the edge of growing up. Thrust into the world almost alone once more after the death of their parents she herself had only been three years old with only a memory of a woman humming at night and a deep laugh of a male shadows she knew was her father lost some place in memories.

"This weather is not helping my mood huh?" She lazy thought for the moment, cheek lightly placed on her open left hand as strands of gold fell from her pony tail at the nap of her neck. "It's been raining for a week now. When it is really going to spring?"

She had come to love the new green life of spring each year when winter lost its grip on the lands and once more pulled away. You might think there was little sort of life in the city but with the return of birds come home from long flights and the trees budding in the walk ways you got the feelings of nature. Adding in the romance also coming in with the young souls seeking out their other side of soul?

Orihime for the moment felt that once more echo in her heart of what might be called loneness. Many of her friends and school mates had moved away for collage or their own personal reasons slowly after high school. Its not like she didn't keep close with her good friends still but some how with out them around in days like this it felt like she was sinking in some place in the world. Everyone was living so why not her?

Speaking of friends…..

Flipping open her phone the young woman smiled just a bit brighter in the messages from her friends that some how had spread all over the world. Tatsuki was going to collage in London of all places which had come a bit of shock to class mates but the young girl had wanted to see the world a bit more so a way she had gone. Chado (Sado) had gone back to Spain for a while to help out his uncle who was going through a bit of a cancer scare but he was planning on coming back this summer for a month or two and maybe looking at schools himself in Tokyo. Now Ichigo was following in his fathers foot steps a bit in being a doctor going to school in Kyoto but he was still unsure of which area to hit so he was going for a nurse for now, the idea of the very male shinigami/human as a nurse was a good joke to many but he seemed to like the idea and was doing well in his classes. Ishida was helping in his fathers own company and going to school part time and often met with her on bi-weekly for coffee.

Yep everyone had moved on from that event nicely and slowly forged new paths but it seems she was not. Orihime for the moment felt that ache in her chest as some kind of lead weight and took a shaky breathe to slow down her heart beat racing in thinking back to the events just three years ago. Three years to some might be enough to move on and heal but some how her soul felt broken and shattered.

"Orihime-chan?"

The slightly deep voice broke the girl from memory's lanes for the moment to look back on Mr. Ito, her boss and owner of the bakery. Light grey touched his blacken hair for the moment to make him look older but the man was only 35! He had come to blame it on his twin daughters age six for this grey.

"Hai !" she smiled brightly, flipping back the locks of golden hair for the moment. "Not much is going on sir!"

He smiled in seeing the bright girl shine even in this grey spring, "Orihime, why don't you head home early today, I plan on closing a bit early today. Kana just texted me the girls just got into some super glue and they need papa home or Kana might just be driven up a new wall."

Eyeing the man, she only nodded and smile "Hai Sir! Just call me if you need me to watch those two again any time!"

Chuckling at the bubbling like aura of the young woman he only nodded and headed to the back to clean up and head his own ways home. "That girl was a god send to me these years, thankfully the twins love her as much as we do. Wonder why a lucky man has not shown up on a white horse to steal away that princess all these years?"

Counting out the till and placing it back in the safe in the back of the store like always with the off key humming of her boss acting a warm good bye, she went to grab her simple leather jacket a gift from Tatsuki from London and her bright blue umbrella to fend off the rains. Casting back a glance at the shop, she felt a trigger of regret leaving it like always in knowing there was no one to greet her at home on such grey days.

Still as she walked for the moment, part of her felt that this day off some how she could not form into words. Its not like the hollows had been coming in numbers after the Winter War and the local shinigami was handling them well. Sure now and then she would step out side the human life and use her powers to kill a few of them if they increased but she also knew one thing that had come to keep a leash on her life.

Soul Society was watching her.

It had gone un said but Urahara -san had come to say it in so many words to her and the others after the Winter War and that man had come into their lives. Perhaps it was also why many of them had left Karakura town like they had to escape the shorting leash the heavens had tried to cast on the sub-shinigami and his allies and friends. Yet she could not leave this place for some reason, feeling that old wound in her heart ache a bit.

"Why does it feel like some thing went un said or done?"

Turning back to her block to her apartments but a cat running out from no where as it yowled in the sharp bang of cans hitting the concrete woke the woman from her daydreams. Jumping back a moment as the furry thing flew past her into a ally way. Grey eyes turning for the moment to the ally way and sensing something out of the normal. Eyes trying to make out a shape of some kind in a dirty blanket made her take a step back but curiosity got her more and more also the need to heal and add pulling her body and soul all the more.

"Um Hello?" she asked, whispering it into the rains. "Are you hurt?"

It moved a moment as a deep breathe conformed it was male and human at least as who ever it was sought to push up from the wet ground for the moment. Then as the blanket moved from the head Orihime felt her heart stop as her breathe stilled in her lungs for the moment in seeing those green eyes that had come to haunt her in dreams night in and out.

"Woman…"

That calm tone hit every nerve in her body as she pushed away to lean on the wall oppose of the man and knowing fully who it was just by eyes and voice alone as ashen hair fell on pale skin of a light pigment. Feeling the rain come to kiss her skin all the more as his eyes locked on her ashen ones and she whispered his name like it was sin to even say it out load.

" Ulquiorra….."

Note: Ah not the best chapter I would say but I wanted to get things moving a bit in the meetings of these two and so it will get a lot better, but you need a go between at times to get a story going huh? Personally I love the last part! Well please review and also looking for a beta reader still!


	4. Part Four

Chapter Four: Awkward Meeting

Rating: PG-17

Memories…

Floods of those memories and that place haunted her mind in moments of seeing one of the pillars and triggers of these haunting nightmares that now threaten to engulf her soul on the spot as hands dug into the wall she leaned on. Scarping her nails on the grey stone for the moment as the ache laced her soft finger tips as those eyes peered at the woman from under ashen locks. Both locket maybe for moments to hours to both as only the sounds of the rain falling hit the ground and echoed them a cage of memories. 

Part of her wanted to run and leave after seeing his once more, always those jade eyes had burned some place in her heart of that place. That hell she chose to step into just to save her friends and her weakness used against her to cast out a net to temp those friends to come to her aid and many had paid a bloody price for her one choice those few years ago. Chest rising and falling as her body fought to flee also so much like the wounded animal she was but also it was something about those eyes that kept her from running, something more may be peaking in the hidden depths.

This man…

Orihime looked away for a moment and glanced at the sidewalk that no one of a normal idea would be walking in this type of setting yet looking back her eyes lightly opened a touch wider. He had passed out? Seeing his chest framed by the rags of his notable uniform and the blanket he had used as a clock of sorts shone there was some slight color to the once parch white skin. Then more of the shock in looking at his chest also said the truest statement to the once captive.

"His hollow hole is gone over his heart? Also so is his number Four tattoo?" Her mind whispered as azure eyes for the moment casting back and forth on where both had once landed on the flesh. Something of a faded shallow scar lay over his heart once empty. "What happened to him? Is he human now?"

Casting out her senses just a touch as taught, she found his aura to very normal in that a normal human if any ever born. Looking down more over his body to see if anything of the once Espada remained was the only hint of his uniform, but seeing the man's torn and bleeding feet even made her wince in . Fighting the urge to cast some cowards glance at his face, Orihime knew she had too to look just to make sure none of this was some illusion.

His sharp eyes now lay closed as the filter daylight casts a hint of shadows over his high cheekbones framed in ashen locks roughly cast out. The once tear lines on his skin were faded and looked old, but still remained as a remember of who and what this man had once been back in the years yet no mask also lay on his features nor to crown his head. There was something also pristine looking about the young male even she could not place but it lingered in the air around him, Maybe a fine line also that he did seem almost doll like if not for that same line that filtered there was something very male in his lanky built and a sense of underplaying danger he once held over her. Ulquiorra also did not look fully Japanese from the slight wide touch to his eyes, but what else lay in him?

What cast out her looking was the ragged breathe he took in informing her he was sick or hurt. "What a fool I am! Here I am day dreaming and I am letting him lay out in the open and cold!"

Still before moving, the question was it safe to even touch him and even bring this man into the house? In his current state, Orihime knew she could easily use her powers to protect herself from him if was now truly human as it seemed and looked to her eyes and senses. Add in the need to always help those who needed to be healed has long ago burned itself into the very core of who the woman was no matter who or what they had once been. Pulling the leather jacket tighter around her body and glad she had chosen jeans today did help to chase away the cold.

"Thankfully I am on the first floor this time, if it was my old place I might have had to call for help…" muttering under lips while chewing on the lower one in nerves.”Ok Orihime let’s see if working in the bakery had paid off in some upper body growth!"

Walking to the sleeping male made her stiffen in knowing she had to touch him as one finger lightly went out to make contact with his cheek. Ulquiorra's flesh was chilled from the dampness and even wet, but there was that all too human warmth under the pale flesh. Pulling out the pent up breathe also added to the tension air of this meeting. Swallowing a bit before moving to phase two, she knelt down to work an arm under his left side and pulled his right over her own shoulders. Also more than glad she had taken up running these years to keep in shape helped with the leg strength for the next few feet of getting him home.

Moving to standing, she blinked at how light he felt for her also, noting how his ribs shown as the cloth moved from the position. Had he eaten? How long had he been human? Nothing of these questions was going to answer till Ulquiorra woke up. So something in a half drags and walking with nothing but dead weight did not help but Orihime did make it to her door and all the more glad she had left it unlocked this morning.

Her new home was smaller than her last and a bit cheaper with the futon still out from this morning. It was not like a lot of people came to apartment these days sadly. Orihime made it the last few feet to lay the man down on her bed and quickly shut the door and turned the heat up to chase away the chill of the rainy air. Huffing from the walk, she pushed away the golden locks of bangs to look back at the man to see still out.

"I got to get those wet clothes off of him…" blushing in the shocking fact for the first time she had to undress a man and it was one who had held her caged. "This seems it should be out of a Shoujo manga!"

Words of a nervous laugh only added at the increasing tense moment for the woman, gulping down the air of the room and pulling off her own shoes and reaching into the drawers pull out a simple baby blue t-shirt and a pair of old jeans a bit big. Getting into some dry cloths might help her nerves in looking down and seeing how her clothes looked more painted on with the outline of her bra lines pushing out. Giggling as the mental images hit her mind; maybe she had been reading too many romance novels again?  
Changing in moments, Orihime breathed on her hands to warm them as she padded over to the still sleeping man but he seemed to shiver. His chest rose and fell to own rhythm for the moment as he seemed also childlike in sleeping without the platonic expression on his face he once masked. Lightly pulling away the wet blanket, her eyes noted how torn his uniform was but had it been from a recent fight? It was odd to pull away the jacket and she lightly noted it was old looking, as if years had passed on it but how? Nothing was making sense right now, but there one was big problem Orihime did not.

Ulquiorra had no type of underwear on under his pants. Had Aizen made them not have any on?

Gulping down the air and placing the jacket on the side, she was about to see a naked man? She had never seen a naked man less much even touch a man!  
"I need a blanket! I can over him with it and pull down his pants without looking! Easy right?" Muttering as she ran to the closet out to pull out a blanket covered with bunnies and moons. "You can do this! Be a man or ah woman!"

Placing the blanket over his body, she licked her parched lips and moved to reach under the blanket and feel the edge of his pants. Closing her eyes, she yanked and pulled them down over his lanky legs and felt the heat of his skin, blushing all the more in what she might see if the blanket slipped! Standing up, she peeked open an eye to see herself holding the pants and letting out the pensive air in her chest. Adding n the luck the blanket had thankfully moved about an inch or two! Seeing the bare chest and frame of the passed out Espada now human made the woman feel out of place in her own home. 

"I have a naked guy in my bed…"

Gently putting the pants with the jacket, Orihime now had no idea on what to do with the man. Did she call Urahara-sun? What would he do and or would his contact the Shinigami? What would they do to this helpless man now passed out and sleeping like a child in her bed? Why had he also found her? Shaking her head and thinking it might be better to wait till she could talk to Ulquiorra about everything that had come to this point.

Unknown to her, his breath deepened a moment in feeling the chill leaving his skin and picking up the scent of honey close by. Eyes blinking a moment in the shadows without light on to see a blurry figure of a female. Then a gentle touch to his forehead as the heat strike like lighting in the pure contact of flesh, trying to place in where he had felt this life before. 

"You're safe…"


	5. Chapter 5

He could feel something of warmth on his cold skin for the moment as his chest rose and fell and tasting the damp air anymore that he had passed out in. Feeling the nerves of his skin for the moment feeling something soft around his body to keep warm. What was it? What happened to him again? Shifting a bit to get a feeling of this soft thing cocooned around his body for the moment as the mind tried to place all the memories in order.

The skin was a strange thing to the now human for the moment as his mind still had yet to get to use to the sensations of even having it. Ulquiorra for the moment let his mind fill out the blanks as to what had happened after leaving the grave yard. Feeling the moment it also might be good to open his eyes and get some idea of where and maybe the who that had brought him here. To his understanding humans where shallow creatures and the idea that one might have helped the Espada brought many warnings to his soul. With out his powers, he was helpless and lack of knowledge of the living world.

Blinking a moment as his eyes lightly cracked open, no source of light of the natural kind or that of the artificial filled the room. It did not help also in waking he could feel how weak his body felt from the trek in search for the woman of all humans in this city. Remembering the aching cold that sank pass his flesh to his marrow and how the walk had torn open the souls of his feet to make even walking some form of new torture. No wonder humans used shoes to cover their feet; maybe these creatures had some brains after all,

"Where am I?" He asked only in his mind, blinking to clear sleep away. "Or is it I even got here and maybe the who is better asked."

Ulquiorra looked down to see he was under a blanket covered in moons and bunnies and raised an eye brow at the childish design of the thing. Lightly pulled it up he also found his torn uniform to be gone, a bit to gone for his taste as he licked his lips.

"They also must have undressed me…." Thinking darkly he was naked in some unknown place and also some unknown person had touched his body while he had passed out.

Shifting a bit to roll onto his back to find only a white basic ceiling as some light from the outside peeked out from a street lamp. His senses cast out as he took a deep breath to lightly scent something a sweet like scent in the air and something of a faint honey but more alive as he tasted the air like the animal for the moment. Turning his head slightly to listen to light pounding of rain hitting the window for the moment and the ticking of a clock of some kind then he picked up the faint exhale of a person. Jade eyes narrow for the moment as it sounded female as he cast his aura a bit to pick up the energy and took to chance to slowly pull himself up on his elbows.

A slim out a line of a woman met his gaze as a halo of golden locks spread out like some geisha's fan to his eyes in seeing how striking the color was in the white setting of the room. Who was this woman? Sniffing the air a bit more to place the scent, as it richly filled his nose to travel and sweeten his cheeks and tongue a moment like a sinful treat. It tastes pure to him for the moment as Ulquiorra tried to place it all the more in his memory as for the first time he had truly

Gray eyes full of a pure heart had come to burn into his mind for the moment as the former hollow blinked in placing the scent in his mind and memory. Had she found him? Could it be the woman? Cocking his head to with out knowing reach out to touch the silken strands and feel out her aura of gold for the moment that shone in his mind like some holy sun. Feeling the softness of the locks crept a strange twitch in his hands in feeling something so supply for the first in his life. Lightly with out knowing it gentle rubbing the strands between his finger tips to get off the idea of the texture. Hearing her softly whisper something brought the man away from this new sensation of the human body to pull away.

"Hmmm, no I don't want the cake Mr. Bacon…" Orihime came to mutter in her dreams to turn and shift her body so her sleeping face came to come in the diction of Ulquiorra. "Add in some butter for Miss. Kitty…..and fish…."

Seeing those full lips lightly move made the man freeze in hearing the song of her voice for the first as if truly for the first time. Picking on the light hums as she whispers in her dreams thing he could not pick up she sounded different as if her voice was fuller some how to him. Narrowing his eyes for the moment all the blanks lay in his time in passing out. All he could recall was the scent of honey being his path and her aura to the woman.

"She brought me to her home and in knowing who I am…" his inner voice tried to fraction any reasons why. "Why?"

He could not fathom anymore as exhalation once hit his new body to force the very to naked man to lay down as sleep begged him to slip back into the unconscious. Casting a look over at the female he signed once more to taste the honey scent she gave off and some how found it composing to his mind as Ulquiorra closed his eyes for the first time in choice and slept on till the mornings birds call out of spring and the buzz of a machine in the kitchen also called out.

Eyes blinked once more in the light of day as the pink curtains still held some of it back, casting out a gentle light to wake too for the moment. He came to once more to sit up and using his back hands to lightly rub his eyes for the moment in waking. Questions of the events still trying to form in a sleepy mind even for him.

"Oh, your up!" a bit of a too cheery voice made the former number four turn to find its source. "Um wait there a moment while I get you a robe! Can't have you walking around naked in my apartment!"

The woman?

Watching her already in a white blouse with a tank top and jeans to match as she nearly bounced to the bathroom and pulled out a black silk robe. Thankfully it was long enough just to make its way to his knees as Ulquiorra found it covering his legs. Eyes never leaving the Orihime with more of a strange look tiding over his face as she only smiled at him with no scent of fear at all. Truly she was a strange human in all odds and ends Ull had ever come on in his days so far.

"Um, I hope you like eggs…I'll turn my back so you can get up and put the robe on! Don't worry I won't peek at all!" She smiled out, turning her back.

"Why do I care if she peeks?" He thought dryly, knowing full well she was the one who had undressed him. Humans were strange when it came to the form of the naked body and nudity.

Standing up, he grabbed the garment and pull it over his lean shoulders and chest so it fit a bit struggle like over his body but it did cover below the belt. Relishing in how the silk touched his skin as he shudders a bit in the nerves of his body feeding his mind. Ulquiorra took a deep breath to pick up the honey scent of the woman all over the robe and found it pleasing.

Casting a look as her back was to him. Normally you did not turn your back to a foe if you did not trust them but she had always been a bit open in her body for his taste. It had cast the man a lot of discomforts back in those days as he slowly took a step on his feet and looked down to find them bandage. Not only had she taken him to her home and also had healed him to some order? He felt a bit of a discomfit more of this human as a feeling of maybe gratitude lingered in his heart.

"Ulquiorra-san?"

Her voice made his emerald eyes come to leave on her own gray as concern moved in the hidden depths, head tilted a bit with a slight smile to him. "Are you ok? Do you need anything?"

It was a very open statement in which gave him the opening he needed to ask her a few things.

"Why did you save me woman in knowing full well who I am and what I did you and your friends?" was blunt, keeping his tone low and calm.

Orihime blinked a moment and let down the bowl of eggs she had been mixing, pulling up the stool a bit to sit down and think. Man did he not know how to try small talk at least and maybe thanks might be nice for saving the man's life!

"I can not leave someone hurt or in pain, its never been in my nature too. As for why…" she said, tapping her lips in thought. "Well you're not my enemy now, are you? I mean the War ended and Aizen is captured…so I guess we aren't fighting anymore."

Her logic made some even sense as the man stood there for the moment, replaying out her words.

"Your also seem to be human now and why are you human Ulquiorra? What happened to you?"

Now that was a question he had wanted to ask and Inoue watches a light play of emotions hit his mask and shatter it. Was he scared maybe? The thought of one of the Aizen most powerful creations scared made the female feel a bit off-ish herself in knowing full well this was an out of place moment for both the human and hollow.

"I do not know. I woke like this last night in a grave yard."

Orihime blinked in this detriment of an answer as she smiled in a tight expression. So he was as lost as she in this event playing. Over looking the now human Ulquiorra and felt a bit of pity as he looked like a lost boy with out his place in the world. Had he ever looked so confused to her back then? Only in the moment of his death as she saw the heart of the hollow turn to ashes before her two years ago.

"How about we eat first and then let's think and figure things out!"


	6. chapter 6

"Did hollows eat human food?" Orihime thought for the moment cast a look at the naked man in her favorite black robe for the moment, mixing the eggs. Seeing how he seemed to just look around the room and even glance at the books she had. "Maybe I should ask him? Would it be rude?"

Ulquiorra at the moment did feel the woman looking at him now and then but choose to ignore for the moment. Humans often did this when thinking about asking something or where of the nerves breed which he knew the woman was not. Finding it odd also she was now going to feed him and treating as if he was "normal" and "human". It made him feel nerves in his own right at her changing nature as it had been back in Hueco Mundo.

Had she not hated him? Even recalling her actions back in the hollow world made his brows wrinkle a bit in pulling out a book on ghost stories. Feeling out the flat cover with his finger tips a bit, lightly only taking in this sense of touch. It seemed skin could feel out much in this world as Ulquiorra face shown and slipped into a strange child like the look in running more finger tips over the book and reaching out to touch the book shelf and finding it smoother and slightly cold. This was the wonderment to him as his mind tried to place the new nerves in his body.

Yet Inoue also watched the strange expirations of the former hollow and blinked as it seemed also child like how he was moving to her place and touching things, as in a glee but now and then looking scared. Ulquiorra would reach out to touch things, pulling back his hands only as if he was burned but would return to his exploring of this space. It was child like as if this was his first time even feeling things. Was it? Her own gray eyes watched with a small smile now gracing her lips.

"Um, Ulquiorra-san?" She asked him, trying not to laugh a bit but a short giggle hit her lips a bit, smiling brighter at the jaded eye man. "Food should be done, I made scrambled eggs and some toast if that's ok?"

Turning he had stopped his touching exploration to cast a stone look at his host; "Yes, what ever you think is good for a human to eat the woman."

Shaking her head to make the gold waves of her hair move, she still smiled in his habits of calling her woman. Still having her once capture now in her apartment and eating her food she was cooking was a twist even the great Kami may not have seen coming at all in her strange play of life. Orihime could still only smile a bit softer as the events still needed to play out.

He made a move to sit on the bar stool as something of a yellow mass was placed in front of him, a strange smell hit his nose as he blinked in how his human body groaned from his lower area. Was this human hunger? Casting a glance as the toast was also added in with the butter and sniffed the food once more and watched the female eating it happily and looking a bit off. Did food make humans happy? Taking his own fork and lightly even poking it was a quailed look.

"What is this called woman?" He asked

"Scrambled eggs and toast Ulquiorra-san! It's really good and your body sounds like it needs the food!" Orihime smiled, eating her own food.

Placing some of these eggs on his fork, he eyed a moment and placed this so called human food in his mouth. Feeling out the strangest texture ever to cross his month for the moment, lightly running his tongue over the mass called food in this world. Yet it was the sense of taste that stole away the Espada breathe a moment. Something of a strange hybrid of light salt and a sharp sense of spice mixed to set the month of the man to a heaven. All this just from one bite yet soon to be followed till the plate was empty of these scammed eggs made by the woman.

Watching the play of that child like wonderment that made Inoue soften a bit and smile in seeing the former for eating for the first time. It was like watching a new born baby really seeing their world and feeling it for the first time and Ulquiorra was much like this in the human body. Still, it was the question of how he was like this that bothered her mind in eating her own basics food.

"Ulquiorra-san? "

Eyes glanced up a moment to focus on her face; "Yes?"

"What is the very last thing you remember before waking up as a human?" She gently pushed, hoping it might lead to a clue of some kind for both of them.

Setting down the fork on the empty plate, his finger tips traced over the smooth porcelain as much as he had done around the room. Circling to feel the designs on the outside and tracing over the tiny flowers in his own thoughts.

"Nothing after the battle with Kurosaki Ichigo and you reaching out to me and fading away. Only to wake up in a human grave yard and seeking you out, there is not much to say on these events for now Woman." Ulquiorra said, feeling a bitter taste in his month. "So as you humans say, a dead end."

Orihime bites her lower lip for the moment in her own thoughts but still having the very naked man in her kitchen did make the woman blush if you added in the robe. "I should get him some clothes of some kind at least for today and take him shopping on Monday when I get paid for a few things. I can not just turn him out in a world he has no idea on in his birthday suit."

He could only watch the woman move about to pick his plate up and place it in the sink with her own to do later yet still something of his own questions needed some kind of feed back in the truth of her actions even more.

"Why have you not connected or called the Shinigami or any of your human friends on me woman?" He bluntly said.

Some how she had a feeling he had been yearning to ask her since coming to his senses. Slowly turning off the water to leave the plates and pots to soak for the moment as she healer for the moment in truth was and had been thinking the same thing since finding the man at her door last night. It would make more sense to both of them if she had called Ichigo or Urahara-san about her find the hollow now human in this state. He had come into her life and ruined and also nearly killed her friends and added in nearly in the end of the world but still why? Orihime felt a complex of thoughts fill her mind and soul as she knew the answer in truth.

Ulquiorra felt her aura shift for the moment as he saw a bit of trail of thoughts move on her face as she bit down on her lower full lip. It was a habit he had come to note back in Hueco Mundo when he had taken her those weeks. Only did he now stay seated and knew full on well he was at her mercy in anything she did from this point. Lightly coming to grasp his own hands as the nerves of a bitter truth now lay open to him, she held his very life and exists in her actions as he did her back then and what would she do now with him?

It was a tense moment for both of them for the moment as the clock tick and the rain lightly hit the window in a beat of nature older than both of the humans. Orihime only could state at the reflection of the man sitting at her bar in the window as a trail of water matched up with the scars on his face. He also for the moment to raise an eye brow as she turned to him with a slight smile but sorrow filled at the same time.

"I think everyone should get a second chance no matter what and it seems some how you have been given one Ulquiorra. Who am I in truth to question it? You might think it "human weakness" maybe in my answer but it's the truth and also if I did call them, I know they would take you and most likely kill you before finding out why you are here or even give you a real chance..." Inoue said calmly for the moment, letting the truth fill her words as the man blinked at her for a moment. "That's why...."

Ulquiorra for the moment blinked a few times as her words hit a strange ache in his chest in feeling the truth of her words hit something he had not felt ever in his remember days. Was this mercy? Grateful? His eyes looked down at his hands as they lay tightly clasped in the other from the rush of raw feelings now hitting this all too human body as he said this for the first time in his life.

"Thank you...."


	7. Chapter 7

Thank You"

Some of the most basic words ever to be formed in any tongue of human language or spoken by anyone someplace in the world. Yet coming from this cold man, jade eyes cast down in a mix of a lost innocence and fear of showing any sort of emotion. These words meant more maybe to the young woman hearing them as if they were being said for the first time to her. Maybe they where in the truest meaning of a thank you meant.

Orihime could only maybe let the words softly quiver in her ears, his voice barely heard the whisper of the low tone he often spoke in. This strange turn of his personality was also the shock all the more to the normal doll-like man before her. Swallowing a moment to replay his voice and simple expression in her head as she studies him all the more. When had he ever looked so frail and lost? Never in her mind's eye or memory back in those days of being a pawn to Aizen. Even in his fights to the last moments with Ichigo, Ulquiorra seemed to be nothing be pure strength in his own right.

"Your welcome..." she whispered, tasting the words on her lips as the licked them. Maybe she was trying to see if you could taste words and sounds.

Ulquiorra for the moment could only find himself looking out the window in questioning these feelings to the woman once more. Was it a side effect of being human once more? Had ever been human? His brows knit together for the moment in this thought of a past long forgotten. Personally, he never recalled his hollow days like many of his kind did after Aizen he remade them using the Hogyoku. Yet if he had been hollow then by elimination he had to be human at some point, yes? Letting his chest fill in a moment of a long sigh as it pushed by his thoughts, he blinked as month opened wide and let in some large amounts of air.

Seeing the normally calm man just yawn out of the blue and watching the strange reaction she smiled a bit in a roll of eyes as he looked at her with more questions of his human body. "It's called a yawn Ulquiorra-san! We, humans, do it when we are tired or your body needs more air!"

"Yawning?" He asked, touching his chest and thinking more on this new body. Human bodies did so much on their own it was a bit peevish of him. "Humans are strange things, yet your body does so much on its own. You call this instinct yes?"

She blinked a moment in sitting down and smiled once more at the man. He was so lost in this world and now being human seemed to be throwing him for a loop. "Yeah you could say that, I mean I can't tell you everything our bodies do! Just for now let's just say our bodies do things on their own to keep us alive ok?

Knitting his dark brows a bit more in a short answer of the woman made the former Espada try to think of more to ask her but from the light gleam in her eyes, he knew it was all he was getting out of the female for now. Still, this would make for some research on his own time if he was stuck in this skin for the time being. If Ulquiorra was going to be human he may as well learn as much as he could about his own body. Yet he also knew one thing he would need in the first place outside of food.

"Woman."

"Yes?" Inoue looked up for a moment in his statement "Is something wrong?"

Huffing a bit in a wrinkle of his nose he knew one thing he needed "I need to bath."

This came out a blank to even the more blunt statement as she tried to think of something and the answer came in his wrinkling nose. "Oh! Yes! Here let me show you how to use the shower and such!"

Raising an eyebrow he frowned lightly as the lines pulled around this month "I know how to use a showering woman, we had them back home. Just I need a towel and some form of clothing outside of this robe. Unless you want me naked in your living room that is Woman?"

Oh, now he was smirking at the woman as the image formed in her head and a pink fire bloomed on her cheeks. "NO! Um...."

"She is still so easy to rile up. That much of age has not changed some things at least in this world." He thought, smirking even lightly in seeing how her mind was going to a prey like a statement from his questions. "For a grown woman she still acts like a human teenager might..."

Inoue saw the light smirk and blinked in seeing Ulquiorra have a form of a smile! Yet his eyes gleamed like a cat watching a bird in seeing the strong cheekbones and light play on the man's face. If anything even now being human the man was drop dead handsome in some way. Maybe the curve of his jaw or the slight deep set of shadows made you know Ulquiorra was very male.

"I'll go to the shop and grab some sweats for you for now ok? Then in the morning, we can go shopping for some clothes and few other things Ulquiorra-san. "Inoue shot back, crossing her arms a bit and thought of something. "Unless you think one of my skirts might look good on you? "

One eyebrow shot up and blinked in having a come back from the woman. Seems she had grown a bit more of a backbone also in age. "These sweats sound find the woman. I will go and take a shower while you do your shopping but you might want to get something for those wrinkles..."

Blinking a bit in the back and forth of these conversations, she glared at him as he walked away with that small smirk on his lips.

Ulquiorra-1 Hime-0

"He he just said I got wrinkles! The nerve of that damn man after I pulled him off the street in the rain, cook him food and now he is using my shower and he dares to say I have wrinkles!" Orihime huffed in her thoughts and hearing the shower turn on in moments. "Wait, when did Ulquiorra ever get a sense of humor?"

Tilting her head a moment as the golden hairs lightly fell a moment in thinking back to the odd turn of their talking. Tapping a slender finger to her lips for the moment in the thoughts of seeing him act so normal was a throw off for the healer. Yet this deep thought would have to wait, she did need to get him something to have on for now other than the robe.

It was a short trip down the street to a basic cloths store, thankfully sweats where in stock but Orihime tilted her head in the under where part but thought boxers seemed better and grab the black pair and blue pair for her well guest for now. "Thankfully sweats seemed to fit all sizes but he is kinda thin built...has built a lot like Ichigo in some ways." Recalling the man's bare chest and how the muscles moved under the pale skin made the woman blush. "Eppppp!"

Coming back, the sounds of the shower ending made her pull out the cloths from the wrapping "Ulquiorra-san, I got you some sweats for now and some boxers to wear till we go shopping in the morning for you."

Ulquiorra heard the woman and without thinking just walked out into the living room, not even a towel around his waist to cover his full-on glory. Inoue's mouth went dry to see the man walk with an inner grace most humans lacked and all the more comfortable in his own skin as if he knew the effect the former hollow might have on a pair of grey eyes widening.

"Woman, you have no clean towels for me so I will just put on his clothing. "Ulquiorra said, not even caring if he was naked for the moment yet seeing her open and close her mouth shut like a fish made him raise an eyebrow and tilt his head. "Woman, is something the matter?"

"GET IN THE BATHROOM AND PUT ON THE CLOTHS! A MAN SHOULD NOT BE NAKED IN FRONT OF WOMAN UNLESS MARRIED OR THEY ARE DATING!" Orihime screamed and blushed a beet red. "IN NOW!"

Taking a step back from her raised voice and the clothes being shoved into his arms and being shoved into the bathroom with the door slamming left the man blinking for a moment in the actions of the woman. "What is it with humans and their bodies? They act like it's a shame to be covered all the time. I will never understand these humans in this world maybe?"

Inoue blinked, walking over to turn on the cold water and wash her face. "That's the first time I've seen a naked man...."


End file.
